Lydia Loveless latest album is called Real, and that’s perhaps the best descriptor for her live show too. Loveless brings an authenticity to all of her performances, and with this new album under her belt, she’s expanded her musical arsenal as well. “I really like pop music and I always have, When I was younger, I wasn’t musically as adept and people described it as country punk. I just wanted to open things up a bit more and get away from talking about my childhood on the farm. I wanted to be talked about as a songwriter and a talented musician. I definitely improved so I wanted to move behind three-chord country ditties. This one, it’s cohesive and more advanced musically. Stylistically, it’s the most me.”
Like Ryan Adams with something to actually say, this native Ohioan writes songs full of barbed humor and tough truths, none more barbed or tougher than this inverted country tune about the reality of any relationship. “Paradise is only for the weak,” she sings. “Man, no one goes to heaven.” There’s something about the way she spits out that syllable, that “man,” with its slight Buckeye drawl, that sounds like a shrug of the shoulders, a roll of the eyes.
The Fat Angel Sings 